


Spike's Appearances (and non-appearances) in "Restless"

by yourlibrarian



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s04e22 Restless, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 18:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6716557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I began to wonder about Xander’s dream in S4, and what the presence or absence of Spike in each of the dreams meant.  Considering all the foreshadowing that goes on (some of it, such as in Buffy’s dream, quite deliberate) I always found it curious that Spike does not appear and is not referenced <i>at all</i> in Buffy’s future.  By this time Mutant Enemy was definitely considering a Spuffy storyline for S5.  I thought I’d take a crack at puzzling some things out about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spike's Appearances (and non-appearances) in "Restless"

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted January 31, 2006

I read elisi's [essay on Intervention](http://elisi.livejournal.com/8041.html), which had a lot of insightful things to say about Buffy’s emotional state and foreshadowings of a Spuffy nature. Foreshadowings always make me think of “Restless” and her references to the Spandery dialogue in “Intervention” made me wonder again about Xander’s dream in S4, and mostly what the presence or absence of Spike in each of the dreams meant. Considering all the foreshadowing that goes on (some of it, such as in Buffy’s dream, quite deliberate) I always found it curious that Spike does not appear and is not referenced _at all_ in Buffy’s future. By this time Mutant Enemy was definitely considering a Spuffy storyline for S5. I thought I’d take a crack at puzzling some things out about it.

Wondering about the answer made me realize something else. Spike couldn’t have been in Buffy’s dream because it would have detracted from the theme. Each dream represented the weaknesses/fears of that character. Willow is insecure about how she is perceived and who she fundamentally is. Xander is directionless and confused about his present and future. Giles is caught up in duty and over-intellectualizes. Buffy feels isolated and distant from those around her. Spike will, in each future season, be the one person Buffy relies on for something important to her when she can not connect with any one of her other friends. In S5 he will be the one she counts on to protect Dawn. In S6 he will be her main connection to emotion and life, and in S7 he alone will be the one to support her when her own behavior has driven friends and family away. The only thing we can know from Buffy’s dream then, is that she doesn’t see Spike coming. (In fact, some would like to argue that she never saw Spike at all but that’s a different topic.)

So Buffy’s in the dark about Spike, and neither he nor any other vampires make an appearance in her dream. I’d think that was rather interesting for a vampire slayer whose dream revolves around her role AS the slayer, except that for several seasons vampires have only been a sideline for Buffy anyway. So Spike fails to appear either as himself or as a symbol of what she fights against.

In Willow’s case it isn’t too surprising that Spike doesn’t appear. The vampire who does is Harmony, in one of the best examples of the “high school demons” metaphor. Harmony was, apparently, a personal demon for Willow all throughout school. She’s pretty ineffectual in Willow’s dream however, failing to bite or intimidate Giles, and later weeping on stage. As with Buffy, Willow’s real demons are fairly internal or closer to home. Which again explains Spike’s absence. Although Spike was probably a more serious threat to Willow than any of the other Scoobies (“Lover’s Walk”, “The Initiative”) she not only survived those encounters unscathed (and due to Spike’s own weaknesses, his half-assed planning and later, the chip) the two ultimately have little to do with one another over the course of the series. If anything, I think Spike and Willow’s storylines tend to run on parallel tracks but, again, that’s another topic.

But Spike does appear to Giles, and in an interesting capacity. He is not the vampire in the booth where Buffy practices her slaying. He is a sideline, or as Giles himself terms him, a sideshow freak who turns his situation into something profitable. Giles sees him in black and white, despite Spike’s inherent ambiguity, and Giles dismisses him as someone Buffy should have just killed. Although I wouldn’t call it foreshadowing, it does raise a precedent for Giles’ behavior in S7, where he seems all too ready to side with Wood in killing Spike despite Spike’s dramatically different role by then. Having worked with the Scoobies (rather unprofitably, the cash payments long since gone) for some time, having made an effort at redemption, Giles still appears to see him the same way. He’s not the typical vampire, no, but he still is one, and underneath it all it is Giles, not Xander, who never forgets this. The Giles that appears in this dream is also rather emotionally disconnected from everyone around him, including Buffy (Olivia protests his treatment of her). But this is Giles at his core -– rational, duty-bound, ready to confront challenges, and unemotional. He and Buffy will clash over the importance of emotional ties at the end of S5, and although in S7 Buffy will claim she has overcome her emotional prioritizations, she really hasn’t. She sends Dawn away and she shows her faith in Spike until the end. She and Giles still do see things differently. He doesn’t really treat Spike any differently than anyone else –- in fact he’s rather more indifferent towards Xander (“don’t bleed on the couch I just had it steam cleaned.”)

Which brings me back to Xander and Spike. Xander also doesn’t see any vampires in his dream. Spike’s appearance is as himself, not symbolic. And it is very, very different from Giles’ view of him. In Giles’ dream, Spike is a vampire, a professional issue for Giles (I think this is emphasized by the juxtaposition of Giles’ disrupted personal future in the form of Olivia and the overturned pram in Spike’s crypt), and appears in his natural setting, the crypt. I believe Giles and Xander (with Anya) are the only Scoobies who go to Spike’s crypt during S4. Xander’s view of Spike on the other hand, is in a somewhat idyllic, even domestic setting. Given Xander’s own associations of domesticity in his less than happy household, this outdoors scene is probably a more bucolic representation of domesticity for him. In fact, it is the basement, his actual domestic setting, that he keeps trying to escape from during his whole dream. 

The scene with Buffy, Spike and Giles seems like a scene from childhood, something Xander is trying to move away from. Buffy plays in a sandbox, Giles and Spike are on swings. But these are also people Xander sees from a somewhat “professional” viewpoint. Tellingly Willow, the only person Xander actually _did_ know from childhood, is not there. He is not trying to move on from her (as we’ll see later in the truck). He does, however, seem quite divided about what role he wants to continue to play in the world of the Slayer. He is concerned about Buffy’s safety, unsure how he feels about how she sees him (“big brother”), feels more distanced from Giles, and is remarkably unconcerned about Spike replacing him. He wants to be able to do his own thing, which apparently involves “my demon.” He’s talking about Anya, who, even when she becomes a demon again, Xander sticks by in S7, wanting to protect her from Buffy. True, she’s not a vampire, but given the rest of his dream, I don’t think that matters to Xander nearly as much as has been suggested.

That Spike is a vampire, has been their enemy, and is untrustworthy and unworthy of Buffy in general during S4, don’t really seem to be Xander’s main concerns. Unlike Giles, who is fairly dismissive of Spike, but otherwise is very aware of these points, Xander pictures Spike in a setting in which he will never appear: in the sun. Given that Spike could more plausibly have appeared in the basement, something Xander keeps trying to avoid, he obviously doesn’t see Spike as anything near the same kind of threat.

Spike is also not dressed as himself, but rather, a copy of Giles. And Xander is less than fazed by the idea that a vampire will potentially be in the role of guiding and training a slayer (something which Spike actually does in many ways, particularly in S7). Why is Xander the one who sees so much of Spike’s future? Much as I’d like to think it’s because Spike and Xander’s futures are intertwined, I think it really speaks to Xander’s relationship with Giles. Giles is often as dismissive of Xander as he is of Spike in real life, and Xander appears to see that Spike and Giles have more in common than he does with either. They are both of a similar tradition, and have similar things to offer Buffy – experience. It’s rather interesting that both Xander and Willow picture Giles in a rather whimsical manner, though in Willow’s dream he has a more guiding, protective role. I think in Xander’s case it is because despite the effort Giles and Spike are making, they are really going nowhere on those swings. Xander seems to feel he won’t either if he joins them. 

Later when Xander sees Giles at Sunnydale U, and is trying to get assistance from him, Giles is unhelpful, telling him he is playing idiotic games. Giles is frequently disappointed in Xander during the series, just as he is about Spike (stated outright in “Tabula Rasa.”) In his dream, Xander seems to think he doesn’t even rate as highly as Spike in Giles’ estimation. Unlike Xander, Spike is like a son to Giles. So in a way, Xander sees Spike as his competitor, perhaps a bit for his role with Buffy but also, I would think, in his role within the group. Whatever their differences, Xander does seem to see that he and Spike could be on similar tracks, so much so that it is he who sees Spike’s future. And Spike’s being a demon is not a big part of that. 

This last issue seems to be often discussed as part of Xander's nature, a part of his close-mindedness or hypocrisy given his relationship with Anya. However, while Xander may have a more obvious discomfort with demons than the other Scoobies, there are other examples such as his lack of comment on Clem in "Older and Far Away" and his surprising lack of horror at hearing of Riley's extracurricular activities, that indicate this trait may have been overexagerated in his character depictions.


End file.
